2019-2022 | PUReSmart - PolyUrethane Recycling towards a Smart Circular Economy

RUNNING FROM 2019 TO 2022
FUNDED BY EU - HORIZON 2020

CDO RESEARCHERS: JONAS VAN GAUBERGEN & THOMAS BLOCK

CDO was involved in the PUReSmart project, coordinated by the Belgian company Recticel. The project was launched on 1 January 2019 for a duration of four years. It was supported by EUR 6 million in funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The PUReSmart collaborative consortium gathered nine partners from six different countries and sought ways of transitioning from the current linear lifecycle of polyurethane (PU) products to a circular economy model.

Thermoset PU products such as flexible and rigid foams are long-lasting, durable and useful in many different applications. They are among the six most important plastic materials produced worldwide and promote comfort and safety in daily life. Compared with thermoplastic materials, recycling thermoset PU is a much more challenging process. The PUReSmart project explored new methods, technologies and approaches in order to overcome these challenges and transform PU into a true circular material. PUReSmart targeted the recovery of over 90% of end-of-life PU with the goal of converting it into valuable inputs for new and known products. The project consortium developed smart sorting technologies to separate a diverse range of PU materials into dedicated feedstocks. These feedstocks will be broken down into their basic components as inputs for existing PU products, and as raw materials for a newly designed polymer that merges the durability of thermosets with the circularity of thermoplastics.

CDO investigated the conditions under which the PUReSmart technology can scale up and have broad impact. This relates to a combination of economic incentives, institutional structures, legal rules and political choices – or in other words the innovation system and its market into which the technology is embedded – and how this supports or hinders the breakthrough of the technology. The analysis was based on innovation studies and socio-technical transition analysis, in particular the analysis of niches. We used the framework of Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) as a starting point to understand which functions have to be fulfilled in order to enhance the chance of upscaling (Bergek et al. 2015; Hekkert et al. 2007). Several assessment criteria are labelled in the literature as ‘key processes of innovation systems’ or as ‘system functions’: stimulating entrepreneurship; knowledge development and diffusion; shared visions; formation of markets; providing legitimacy; counteracting resistance to change, etc. Our analysis was assessed by experts and key stakeholders that wedre active in the PUReSmart system. As such, methods and techniques typically included document study and interviews. The outcome of our analysis was the identification of a number of system functions that form an obstacle for the progress of the PUReSmart technology.